Hopes set on algae to fight greenhouse gases

New green technologies that have been approved for funding by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) were announced at the end of October.

The 14 clean technologies received a total of $30 million, which will be used by their proponents to develop demonstration projects. The projects approved have to show they might “benefit both the environment and the economy.”

One project approved for funding is a scheme to use algae to capture carbon dioxide from compressor stations and other installations in the fossil fuel and power generation sector. The algae would then be used to produce biofuels. A consortium led by Menova Energy of Ottawa will demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of a solar bio-reactor for the purpose.

Another successful applicant is a project to demonstrate a versatile cogeneration system using multiple agricultural biomass feedstocks as a rural alternative to burning coal. It will be demonstrated as part of a district heating project in the Mtis community of Saint Laurent, Manitoba. Its proponents are Vidir Biomass of Arborg, Manitoba.

A patented system for treating industrial cooling tower water also won funding. It involves a real time process control system and adapts electrostatic water treatment technology. The technology is being developed by Enviro Tower of Toronto, with Toyota Motor Manufacturing.

Hatch Mott MacDonald is on the consortium led by Trilogics Technologies of Vancouver in a project to help municipalities manage water loss in their infrastructure. The project uses Trilogics’ Infastructure Asset Intelligence to interconnect IT business and operational systems and help in decision making. The system will be piloted in Kingston, Ontario.

MSR Innovations of Burnaby won funding for a project to improve the installation of photovoltaic systems on buildings. The consortium partners will demonstrate a solar roofing system that “dramatically” improves the installation of these systems and promises to reduce their costs.

A list of all 14 projects can be found at www.sdtc.ca.

SDTC is an arm’s length foundation, which receives financial support from the government of Canada – $1.05 billion so far – to fund promising innovative sustainable technologies.

In announcing the latest round of successful applicants, SDTC chairman Stephen Probyn, said:

“Since our first funding round in 2002, we have seen a twenty fold increase in financial support for clean technologies. The public and private sectors have seen the importance of clean technologies, embraced our model and have invested their time and money into this important area.”

SDTC will launch the next call for Statements of Interest for the SD Tech Fund on February 27, 2008. The upcoming call for SOIs will include a request for projects with technologies that address climate change, clean air, clean water and clean soil issues.